Lula had participated in Recife in an evening ceremony in memory of Holocaust victims. He was supposed to leave for Zurich at 12:30 am, to speak at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where he should receive the Global Statesman award.
The president, apparently, fell ill after a dinner at the Palace of Campo das Princesas, late Wednesday, and had to be rescued and rushed to the hospital.
The dinner hosted by governor Eduardo Campos was the president’s last commitment in Recife, prior to flying to Davos, Switzerland.
According to initial information given by the Press Secretary of the State Government, Evaldo Costa, Lula didn’t have a serious health problem.
The president felt ill and his doctors, as a precaution, thought it best to take him to the hospital.
According to another report, Lula was already in the Air Force Base, getting ready to leave to Davos when he started feeling ill. There was no word if the trip to Switzerland would be scrapped.
There were also reports that the cars carrying the president to the hospital exceeded 70 m/h.
Jamildo Melo informed in his blog that the doctors had diagnosed an hypertensive crisis, with the president’s pressure reaching 180 by 120.
The latest information is that Lula would spend the night in the Recife hospital. There are plans to take him to the Hospital Sírio Libanês in São Paulo, later today. As for the trip to Davos, at this point it has been canceled.
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A president aide told reporters early this morning that Lula was already in the airplane ready to leave to Switzerland when his doctor found his pressure was too high.
He then advised Lula to go to the hospital for a battery of tests. He underwent an EKG, a chest x-ray chest, a CT scan, an echocardiogram and blood tests. According to his aide, the tests results didn’t show any addditional problem, besides the pressure.
Lula was treated with diuretics and his pressure was already back to a lower 130 by 80 at about 3 am, when the president went to sleep.